Cycling continued

What better way to start a new thread than with a Giro preview! You can't top the Tour de France for big time excitement, but the Giro claims to be the most beautiful race, and it's hard to argue that title (even though Bennati isn't riding). Plus this is the Centennial version and comes with that much extra pageantry and fun.

To start, here are some key stages identified:

St 1 - Sat May 9 - team time trial in Venice. I love a team time trial and this one is set in Venice so it's hard to beat the scenery.

St 5 - Wed May 13 - the Giro kicks off the start of its mountain stages in the first week just to give the sprinters some fun before they quit the race

St 10 - Tues May 19 - this stage was supposed to go into France but was shortened to exclude the French alpine passes which are still likely to be covered with snow at this stage, but it's still an impressive 250 KM of climbing.

St 12 - Thurs May 21 - a very long (61.5 KM) individual time trial which is likely Ivan Basso's biggest obstacle to getting his second win. This stage could be key in determining the leaders.

St 16 - Mon May 25 - 237 KM of mountains

St 17 - Wed May 27 - They cut the last 4 KM of the mountain finish off because of problems with roads and snow, but this is still a steep mountain stage, although significantly shorter than some other mountain stages (79KM)

St 19 Fri May 29 - The last mountain stage runs 164 KM and is the last chance for someone to make a big difference in the standings

St 21 Sun May 31 - The race ends with a short 15.3 KM individual time trial. It's much shorter than the other ITT so less likely to have a big impact, but if the top riders are close, the ITT could impact the standings more than the typical race ending ceremonial stage.

Useful Links:

There is currently no planned tv coverage in the US, but Cyclingfans will have all the links where it can be viewed online (ETA: see update below regarding Universal Sports online and cable broadcasts)

Twitter Links: lots of riders on twitter including race favorites Ivan Basso and Levi Leipheimer, as well as Lance, and assorted teams, announcers, DS's and news sites. This list includes links to cycling related teams and people on twitter.

And you can always count on the Giro for emotional outbursts. The race hasn't even started yet, and already Italian National Champion (and Armstrong nemesis) Filippo Simeoni stormed into the Italian Federation office to return his National Champion jersey in an outrage because his team wasn't invited to the race. Race organizers snarked that if he rode for a better team, or if he had more impressive results this year, the team might have been invited. But then they also mentioned that Simeoni also passed up a chance to make nice with Armstrong during a race this season, which further outraged Simeoni. And this year there is the added fun of seeing whether Astana will have enough money to finish the race.

For Lash, a lengthy BBC interview with Cav, and the video doesn't appear to be geo-restricted. Apparently it runs close to 20 minutes, although I'm at work and haven't watched it yet.

ETA:Fun article from ESPN.com with quotes from riders about the difference between the Tour and the Giro. Christian Vande Velde weighs in:

2. Tradition. "Some might argue this, but I feel some traditions are a bit stronger in the Giro. There will still be stages where the townspeople make cookies or hand out ice cream. Everyone stops and eats a ton, then gets back on the bike and starts racing again as if that were normal."

3. Worldview. "The Tour de France is very international, whereas the Giro is Italian. Lotta cologne. Lotta hair product."

Barry has written a book about his time at Postal, and a number of articles for the NY Times. He has a great writing style.

Mark&#8217;s smile as he signed the children&#8217;s notebooks told a story. He too was one of the bubbly schoolkids just a few years ago. There was pride in his smile as he thought about how far he had come and there was also nostalgia as he thought back to where he had been. We had all once been timid little kids who asked for our heroes&#8217; autographs. It was the passion we discovered then that has brought us here today to race in the 100th Giro d&#8217;Italia

Stupid, stupid Tom Boonen has once again tested positive for cocaine in an out of competition test. As I understand it, since it was out of competition, he won't have UCI sanctions, but a second conviction is likely to bring stiffer criminal penalties, and probably once again will prevent him from competing at the Tour.

I also read on Universal that the reason the Giro cut off the end of the Blockhaus stage is so that the authorities can concentrate on the earthquake repairs rather than spending time and money to clear the roads at the top of the mountain stage. And the pink bracelets that you'll see a lot of the riders sporting are being sold to raise money for earthquake victims. I think Danilo Diluca who is from the affected area is behind the bracelet campaign.

Cav was more than a little mad at himself and admitted that he may have been a little bit lazy in starting the sprint too late since he thought he could catch Petacchi.

Meanwhile, the Italian Olympic Committee (supported by the UCI) has suspended Valverde for 2 years over Operation Puerto. Valverde meanwhile has filed a case in Spain arguing that that CONI doesn't have jursidiction. Expect this case to play out in the Court for Arbitatration in Sport. Because the UCI supports the CONI ban, it should apply in countries other than Italy, but even if it didn't, most race organizers wouldn't want the bad press of inviting him, and the TdF does go through part of Italy this year. This is one of those sad cases where my desire for clean racing conflicts with my desire for hotitude in the peloton.

Poor Christian VandeVelde hurt his hip in a crash today and is out of the Giro. Hopefully it's nothing too serious and won't endanger his Tour.

Yeah, Cav said the maglia rosa yesterday was no real consolation. I'm glad Tyler Farrar got second on the stage today, although I wish he could have won. At least it would give Garmin something to cheer about.

Unfortunately, a crash earlier in the stage put team captain Christian Vande Velde on the ground. He was taken to the hospital along with the team&#8217;s medical staff where he was diagnosed with two broken ribs and a severe contusion and sprain to his mid-back. He will return to Girona as soon as possible for further examination and rehabilitation

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They were initially reporting a broken leg or a broken tailbone, so relatively, that's not such bad news, although it's too bad he has to leave the Giro.

It seems like most of the main contenders stayed together until the end of the climb today, so no real damage done. Dilluca and Basso made the ride look easy, and Leipheimer never makes anything look easy, but he stayed in with the contenders. I was rooting for a Jens! stage win, though.

Also, Prudhome confirms "no tour for you" for Boonen, and the UCI is suggesting they may suspend him for up to 6 months for "actions detrimental to racing" even though the out of competition cocaine positive isn't considered a doping violation. That's the same regulation they're trying to use to suspend Bos for taking down Daryl Impey in the sprint finish at Tour of Turkey. Sort of a "catch all regulation"

And if you haven't been following Paul Sherwin's twitter, he often posts various African proverbs (he lives in Kampala, Uganda). Today's proverb:

The evidence against Kloeden appears to be mounting. If he had a Spanish license, they probably wouldn't go after him until a positive test, but I can't imagine Germany won't start a proceeding. (or does he hold a Swiss license like Ullrich?) Either way, it won't help him look for a job if Astana is suspended at the end of the month.

And I won't spoil the ending of today's stages, but to Bradley Wiggins who is a much better climber than you'd expect. That's got to be a pleasant surprise in an otherwise disappointing race for Garmin.

Astana is wearing "faded" jerseys with the logos of most of the sponsors faded out to wear they can't be seen in protest over not having been paid salaries. Only the one Kazakh sponsor who has paid, and the Trek and Nike logos are visible. Velonews has questioned whether this is a power play by the sponsors to either make sure Vino is on the team, or build a team around Vino, but Johan says he thinks it's purely financial.

GK, thanks for those pics. Part of why I love to watch cycling is seeing the comradarie between the riders. Same teams or otherwise. I love it when they pat each other on the back or give each other a little push Diluca and Basso....I might pass out.

Velonews reports that he's now in an induced coma to prevent brain swelling, and has a list of serious (but hopefully not life threatening) injuries.

Meanwhile Columbia continues to show amazing depth and versatility in their stage hunting. And just when you thought you couldn't beat the scenenry in the Dolomites, the race headed into Italian lake country with more amazing scenery.

Tomorrow is a 156 KM circuit race in Milan that should scare the GC contenders more than the mountain stages.

In the last few stages, while riding on the front, I have seen the open road; the Italian countryside and riders grow tired from the effort. For hours, I have ridden in a steady paceline with two to ten other riders. It is quickly evident when they only have a few more turns on the front left in their legs. Like a candle wick that is slowly flickering before it is absorbed by the wax it has melted their pulls slowly become shorter, slower and their effort fades with their desire

I had a family event this morning, and missed the stage, but it sounds like I missed more protest than racing. The riders found the circuit race too dangerous because of parked cars and tram lines and basically stopped racing. The race organizers agreed to not count any of the race times for the GC, although there was a stage winner. Sounds like Lance was the one who talked to DiLuca and the other "bigs" about the protest - wonder now if the RCS is still happy they invited him.

This stage was probably the culmination of a couple of days of racers feeling the stage endings were too dangerous (high speed downhills in wet conditions, followed by suddenly narrowed roads for the finish). Mick Rogers called it the scariest race finish he recalled.

Today's "Queen Stage" turned into an intersting final and surprised some of the key guys lost time that will make the ITT even more important. Thursday should be very interesting! Tomorrow has one big climb, but it's early in the stage, and another climb towards the end, but it isn't a mountain finish, and so it's not too likely to have a big impact on the GC. But it could also be a chance for the guys who don't TT well to try to get some seconds/minutes ahead of the long ITT.

Poor Horner couldn't start today as a result of injuries from a crash yesterday. He was riding so well, and I hate to see him have to leave. It also can't be good news for Levi who crashed himself today. Hope he's ok for tomorrow. (ETA: Levi tweated that he went over the bars after hitting a water bottle and "lost a lot of skin" OUCH! Not good just before his most important stage)

Tomorrow is the big ITT. It's got some hills in it, so it won't be a straight flat ride. Menchov was even discussing using his regular bike instead of a tt bike. Tomorrow should have some real impact on the GC and if Danilo can limit his time losses, he'll be in a great position starting the last half of the race.

DiLuca was on the post-stage RAI show and said he most fears Menchov because he's a complete rider and that he thinks Levi will lose some time on the descents. DiLuca is also using his regular bike, and Levi is using a slightly modified road bike as well. Tomorrow's stage should also give us some amazing scenery with its route along the coast.

I'm really looking forward to the ITT- Cinque Terre is so beautiful. The commentators on todays stage (yikes- I don't even know their names, so I'll just call them NotPhilAndPaul). NotPhilAndPaul were speculating on riders using road bikes because of the technical nature of the course.